Digital wireless communication systems have gained widespread adoption in recent years. Common examples of digital wireless communication systems include wireless routers, which are frequently made according to the IEEE 802.11 standards, and mobile telephones.
A common problem with digital communication systems is multi-path fading as multiple copies of a signal propagate from a transmitter to a receiver via different paths. For example, one copy of a signal can propagate via a straight line between a transmitter and a receiver and another copy can propagate via a reflection off a structure between the transmitter and the receiver. Because the two copies of the signals are taking different paths, the copies will be out of phase when they reach the receiver. This can result in constructive or destructive interference. As a receiver moves relative to a fixed transmitter, the receiver will either pick up a stronger or weaker sum of the copies of the signal. This variation is fading in the signal.
To address multi-path fading problems, as well as other forms of signal degradation, orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing (OFDM) has been adopted in many digital wireless systems. OFDM operates by sending digital signals across many different orthogonal subcarriers (or channels). Unlike some other forms of communication which attempt to send a large amount of data over a single carrier at high speed, OFDM spreads the data across multiple subcarriers at lower speeds. This enables OFDM systems to be more robust to interference problems.
To further improve the performance of OFDM wireless systems, multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) configurations of OFDM systems have been adopted. In a typical configuration, a MIMO system may use two or more transmit antennas and two or more receive antennas. By controlling the signals being output on these transmit antennas, beamforming can be used to control the beam shape of the transmitted signal. By controlling the shape of the beam transmitted by the antennas, various forms of signal degradation, including multi-path fading, can be reduced.